The Participatory Museum, a new book from Nina Simon on ways to increase audience participation in cultural institutions, is now available in full under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial license:

I want everyone to be able to use the content and make derivative works. I didn’t choose Share Alike because I know that many museums, universities, and organizations are not able to use CC licenses (and thus would not be able to redistribute the content). But I did choose Noncommercial because I don’t want a publisher to snap up the book or a chapter, credit me as author, and sell the content.

The book contains an incredible amount of useful and thought-provoking information for those working in museums and other cultural institutions. Outside of the book itself, Simon posted on the process of self-publishing – including a deeper look at her license choice – on her Museum 2.0 blog.

In addition to its free release online, The Participatory Museum is available for purchase as both paperback and PDF download.

To whet your appetite, here is what Elaine Heumann Gurian, leading international museum consultant and author of Civilizing the Museum has said about The Participatory Museum:

Nina Simon’s new book is essential for museum directors interested in experimenting with audience participation on the one hand and cautious about upending the tradition museum model on the other. The book is well written, interesting, well researched, and useful.  It will encourage and support those who wish to begin.  Simon dissects the process of participatory change, showing how to make choices that will augment, without overturning, the museum’s current programs or mission.  In concentrating on the practical, this book makes implementation possible in most museums.  More importantly, in describing the philosophy and rationale behind participatory activity, it makes clear that action does not always require new technology or machinery.  Museums need to change, are changing, and will change further in the future.  This book is a helpful and thoughtful road map for speeding such transformation.

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